Paul Schiff Visits Ringling College Film Lab

Paul Schiff Visits Ringling College Film LabMarch 12, 2010 – Paul Schiff visited Ringling College of Art and Design on February 18 and 19, 2010 to assist Ringling College filmmaking students in the new Digital Filmmaking Studio Lab endeavor. Schiff will be working directly with Ringling College to help develop curriculum and provide real world experience to the students.

Ringling College featured a special night with a meet and greet event with Schiff and then a private pre-release screening of Schiff's new film Solitary Man, starring Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito and Susan Sarandon. The screening was followed by an enlightening Q&A, hosted by Digital Filmmaking Department Head Bradley Battersby. This pre-release screening was part of the College's recently announced Digital Filmmaking Studio Lab program, which provides Ringling students with hands-on experience working alongside A-List producers, writers, and directors.

About Paul SchiffPaul Schiff began his career as a documentary cameraman in New York City. He segued to directing for MTV, where he was on staff for four years during the groundbreaking early days of the cable channel. He moved to feature films as an associate producer of Streets of Gold, beginning a longstanding collaboration with its director, Revolution Studios founder and head, Joe Roth.

Paul spent seven successful years at Twentieth Century Fox, where he produced such well-known films as My Cousin Vinny (1992), starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei; The Vanishing (1993) starring Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland; PCU (1994); and Ghost in the Machine (1993). Prior to his tenure at Fox, he produced Coupe de Ville (1990), directed by Joe Roth; Renegades (1989); and Young Guns (1988), and its sequel Young Guns II (1990) at Morgan Creek Productions. He also produced Wes Anderson's critically acclaimed Rushmore (1998), starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, and served as head of production at Propaganda Films.

The past decade has been just as notable for Paul, with three independent films, which all completed production in 2006: The Air I Breathe, featuring an all-star cast led by Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia and Sarah Michelle Gellar; the ensemble comedy You Are Here; and Numb, starring Matthew Perry. He also produced Hooligans (2005) starring Elijah Wood; Maid in Manhattan (2002), starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes; and Mona Lisa Smile (2003), starring Julia Roberts and directed by Mike Newell.

About Future Films, LLC & The Ringling College Digital Filmmaking Studio Lab Future Films and its co-founders Sam Logan and David Shapiro, are working with Ringling College of Art and Design to develop the Ringling Digital Filmmaking Studio Lab. The team will bring to bear their extensive relationships in the film and TV industry to provide for rapid development of the new Studio Lab – a groundbreaking program that combines education with film development.

The Studio Lab is designed to provide Ringling College students majoring in Digital Filmmaking hands-on experience with top-tier directors, producers, writers, and cinematographers as well as help Sarasota become an integral part of the film industry. Sam Logan is a Sarasota-based producer, screenwriter, and filmmaker whose films have been in every major film festival including Sundance and Cannes. David Shapiro is a New York-based entrepreneur who has been involved in Internet media for more than a decade.